This report is focused around Lost and Found data using the intakes and outcomes data received for 2019-2021. Its goal is to reflect everything we could learn about L&F from the available data, make sure the numbers we see make sense, and highlight things that would be useful to show but some/all data required for them are missing.
Date range: 2019-01-01 to 2021-11-30
Scroll down or use the table of contents on the left to navigate throughout the document. Most sections contain multiple tabs showing different facets of a data type. Most plots are interactive, meaning they include tooltips and allow hiding and showing parts and zooming in and out. If something went wrong, look for the house icon in the top right corner of each figure to reset.
This section provides an overview of the RTH rate per year divided by species.
This table covers all strays and RTHs. RTH rates shown below are the number of strays with RTO outcome out of all strays.
When we go over this, let’s make sure we calculate the rate the same way you do, so we would want to make sure what we see makes sense. If these numbers are right, they are higher than the national and higher than HASS averages, which are at 30% RTH rate for dogs and 2% for cats, and have been stable since 2019.
| Species | Year | Strays | RTH_Count | RTH_Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | 2019 | 2247 | 93 | 0.04 |
| Cat | 2020 | 1977 | 82 | 0.04 |
| Cat | 2021 | 2102 | 80 | 0.04 |
| Dog | 2019 | 1334 | 499 | 0.37 |
| Dog | 2020 | 880 | 332 | 0.38 |
| Dog | 2021 | 948 | 360 | 0.38 |
| Other | 2019 | 118 | 2 | 0.02 |
| Other | 2020 | 79 | 1 | 0.01 |
| Other | 2021 | 220 | 5 | 0.02 |
This one only counts animals who came in as strays from the field. Normally, we would then split these by RTH method between RTO in the field and in the shelter, but since there is not a way to tell whether field returns happen from the data, this is left out.
The rates for dogs higher than the overall ones (except for 2019), suggesting the RTH of over-the-counter dogs would be slightly lower lower (next tab).
| Species | Year | Strays | RTH_Count | RTH_Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | 2019 | 1063 | 47 | 0.04 |
| Cat | 2020 | 1113 | 48 | 0.04 |
| Cat | 2021 | 1019 | 37 | 0.04 |
| Dog | 2019 | 795 | 290 | 0.36 |
| Dog | 2020 | 540 | 220 | 0.41 |
| Dog | 2021 | 522 | 215 | 0.41 |
| Other | 2019 | 80 | 1 | 0.01 |
| Other | 2021 | 121 | 5 | 0.04 |
This shows the numbers only for strays that were public drop offs. Indeed, the rates are slightly lower than field intakes for dogs (41% vs. 34% in 2021), and similar for cats.
| Species | Year | Strays | RTH_Count | RTH_Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | 2019 | 1184 | 46 | 0.04 |
| Cat | 2020 | 864 | 34 | 0.04 |
| Cat | 2021 | 1083 | 43 | 0.04 |
| Dog | 2019 | 539 | 209 | 0.39 |
| Dog | 2020 | 340 | 112 | 0.33 |
| Dog | 2021 | 426 | 145 | 0.34 |
| Other | 2019 | 38 | 1 | 0.03 |
| Other | 2020 | 44 | 1 | 0.02 |
These three time series show the RTH rate per month, to show whether there were times with particularly high or low rates as well as the overall trajectory. These figures show only dogs information because there were only 8 RTH cats in 2021.
It seems like the rate has been pretty stable over all with a few spikes of particularly successful months. However, the next two tabs show the pattern is different for field and OTC intakes.
This is the same figure, but only counting field strays (again, anything marked as ACO pick up). Here, even though there are some spikes and lows, there is a steady improvement over time.
This figure only counts strays who were public drop offs. Here there seems to be even a moderate decrease and then stability, definitely not the same improvement as returns for field intakes.
This section shows the number of stray intakes over time, as well as the breakdown of strays by field/shelter intake.
Dog numbers are pretty steady, suggesting that the differences in RTH rates between months are not a result of differences in intake volume.
Looks like more animals come in from ACO.
The average difference in length of stay (in days) between strays with RTH outcomes and all other strays is shown in the table below – roughly 19 days for dogs and 25 for cats when looking at the average.
That means that every successful RTH saves 19 days of care on average at Humane Rescue Alliance, and field RTH would save an extra day or two on average for RTH from the shelter.
This could translate to pretty significant cost savings at scale – assuming a daily cost of care of 30$, if 100 more dogs were returned home in 2021, it would have saved Humane Rescue Alliance about $57,000 in costs of care. This is a fairly simple calculation, but it gets at the magnitude of the potential benefits.
| Species | Outcome | Count | Average_Length_Of_Stay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | Other Outcomes | 4689 | 28.27 |
| Cat | RTO | 255 | 2.89 |
| Dog | Other Outcomes | 1948 | 21.70 |
| Dog | RTO | 1191 | 2.62 |
The following maps show stray intake and RTH rate by Census tracts to highlight geographical patterns. The first and second tab are similar to previous metrics; the third tab, RTH Gap, shows the number of strays who were not returned home per census tract.
The data in this section includes stray animals for which found addresses were present. Also, animals found outside the District of Columbia were excluded since it simplified the mapping process (~130 animals).
There were 9200 animals with intake type of strays after removing TNR animals. About 300 animals had unusable found locations - primarily the shelter addresses (in Oglethorpe and New York Ave), versions of “HRA”, “unknown”, “n/a”, and “7/11”. About 600 additional addresses that included landmarks rather than precise locations (e.g. an abbreviation of a park or lake) or street names only were excluded since they cannot be geocoded. This resulted in 8256 animals overall, of which 2758 were dogs.
After this filtering, the data below (number of strays, rate of RTH, RTH gap) is shown for 2758 dogs of which 1102 were RTH. The next section shows the same maps for the cats.
The area around the airport stands out most clearly.
Note that the area with the highest stray intake also has among the lowest RTH rate.
This combines the other two tabs to highlight where most additional RTH potential exists - it shows the number of strays NOT returned to home in each area. As the RTH rate is fairly low in the areas with the highest stray intakes, it looks pretty similar to the first map.
Here’s a sneak peak into the top 10 found locations plotted above, to make sure they make sense to you.
| Found.Location | Count |
|---|---|
| 2501 Calvert Street NW unit 712 NW Washington DC | 21 |
| 226 Rittenhouse Street NE NE Washington DC | 13 |
| 100 Q St SW SW Washington DC | 11 |
| 1865 Tubman Rd SE 20020 SE Washington DC | 11 |
| 4020 Minnesota Ave NE NE Washington DC | 11 |
| 514 Ridge RD SE SE Washington DC | 11 |
| 1400 Water St SE SE Washington DC | 10 |
| 14th and Upshur NW NW Washington DC | 10 |
| 2817 Gainesville SE SE Washington DC | 9 |
| 5812 Georgia Ave NW NW Washington DC | 9 |
This is similar to the maps above, but for 5141 stray cats of which 229 were RTH.
The map looks somewhat similar from far out, but a few different areas stand out.
Since RTH rate is pretty low across the city, it is also low throughout in this map.
This is very similar to the stray map because of the low RTH occurrence for cats.
Here’s a sneak peak into the top 10 found locations plotted above, to make sure they make sense to you.
| Found.Location | Count |
|---|---|
| 2501 Calvert Street NW unit 712 NW Washington DC | 21 |
| 226 Rittenhouse Street NE NE Washington DC | 13 |
| 100 Q St SW SW Washington DC | 11 |
| 1865 Tubman Rd SE 20020 SE Washington DC | 11 |
| 4020 Minnesota Ave NE NE Washington DC | 11 |
| 514 Ridge RD SE SE Washington DC | 11 |
| 1400 Water St SE SE Washington DC | 10 |
| 14th and Upshur NW NW Washington DC | 10 |
| 2817 Gainesville SE SE Washington DC | 9 |
| 5812 Georgia Ave NW NW Washington DC | 9 |
This map shows different demographic information for the DC area. “Spanish” refers to the % of people who attested they speak Spanish but not English in that Census tract.
One example of using both the census data and shelter data is below – there is a very clear negative correlation between stray intakes and median household income, such that there are fewer dogs coming in from areas with higher income.
Other things we could show if we had the data for it:
Thanks for reading through, and we’re looking forward to talking through it and thinking about more ways to make this data useful for you.